Ethnic Treasure Trove: A Bu's Home

The entrance to new ethnic Guangzhou store A Bu’s Home on Fengsiting Hutong is easy to miss, but keep your nose and ears tuned for the waft of incense and the sounds of ethnic Chinese music and you will be sure to find it. Once inside the array of colors and textures is overwhelming.

A Bu’s Home specializes in ethnic fare, mainly clothing and jewelry from Guangzhou province. Many of the items on sale are original pieces, including a shirt/skirt set that is a hundred years old. But be careful as there are cheaper, factory-made knick-knacks mixed in, especially in the jewelry section. Be sure to ask if what you are buying is actually an original piece.

One entire wall is lined with clothing ranging from linen vests (RMB 280) to handmade ancient dresses (RMB 5,000) and everything in between. Beautiful silver rings and necklaces gleam in a black velvet niche (around RMB 300) and three intricately made crowns stand on a shelf looking over the store. There are a variety of other things on sale from shoes and wall hangings to CDs of Mongolian music.

Go peruse the colorful good and make sure the trance-like feeling induced by the combination of incense and Mongolian chanting doesn’t lure you into overspending.

Must buy: Blue linen vest (RMB 280 )
Also try: Biewutachu, Phewa

A Bu's Home Daily 11.30am-9.30pm 2 Fengsiting Hutong (West of Andingmennei Dajie, acr), Dongcheng District 分司厅胡同2号（安定门内大街西侧）

Photos: Julia Hartmann